War Weary Palestinians Vote for Peace

According to the preliminary results of the elections described as the beginning of a new era, Abbas won 70 percent of the votes and significant support from the Palestinian society for reforms he intends to make. According to exit polls, Abbas beat his closest rival, Mustafa Barghouti, by 50 percent and declared his victory without waiting for the official results last night. Abbas promised "to end the pain of the Palestinian society." The participation rate in the elections was a successful 65 percent.

Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush noted that in passing this historic test, the Palestinians have "encouraged" him. Other positive signs of support for peace efforts came with the elections. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which had previously decided to boycott the elections, announced they would cooperate with the new leader and Israel said, "We are ready for peace negotiations."

Barghouti described the election result by saying, "We are proud of our democracy. Although I came in second, we proved that we are a political power." Palestinians began to celebrate the results following Abbas’ victory speech. The public greeted the new dawn by dancing and shooting into the air.

The final official results of the elections are expected to be announced today. There were 23,000 official observers of the elections including 1,000 foreign observers, 15 which of which were Turkish.

Barghouti, Abbas’ closest rival, represented Al-Fatah, the most powerful Palestinian political party and the only favored name in the elections. Barghouti was expected to win 25 percent of the votes and Abbas to win about 60 percent according to recent public surveys. According to the Palestinian Politics and Research Center’s exit polls, Abbas won 66 percent of the votes and Barghouti won 19.7 percent. According to a poll by Necah University, Abbas was supported by 69.5 percent of votes while Barghouti was supported by 24.5.